What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Billing is loading and Alan Rennie has already asked it questions. Unmatched customer references trace to a suffix rule. Alan is still the only admin, and the security questionnaire for SSO has not yet gone to IT.
What happened: IT created the role and warehouse, and billing began loading. Alan asked which customers had a credit note last quarter and said it was right for most, missing a few.
Customer view: The gaps come from references carrying a suffix after a past takeover of a customer book. Laura Penhaligon will add a rule and re-run overnight.
Commercial: The service desk manager wants to see a customer's bill when they ring up angry, which is a clear value case. Alan plans only a handful of first users against 150 licensed.
Watch: Alan is the only admin and the security questionnaire is still unsent. Laura asked him to name a second admin.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Who was there
BG-Demo
Them
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Laura to add the suffix rule and re-run the mapping overnight.
- Alan to send the service desk access details and the security questionnaire today.
- Alan to ask his IT colleague to be a second admin, then Laura to set up training once faults load.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Alan is the only admin, so absence or departure would leave nobody to run the brain.
- The security questionnaire has not been sent, which delays the SSO conversation with IT.
- Some customer references will remain unmatched and need manual checking.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- The service desk manager's wish to see a bill alongside a fault is a strong early use case.
- Account managers in the first user group are expected to promote the brain internally.
Transcript
- Alan RennieHello? Laura, can you hear me?
- Laura PenhaligonI can, hi Alan. Morning. You went quiet for a second there.
- Alan RennieSorry, I'm on the wifi in a meeting room, my desk was taken by someone from the finance team doing the month-end thing. Is the sound alright now?
- Laura PenhaligonPerfect. Right, how did you get on with IT?
- Alan RennieGood news, mostly. They created the role and the warehouse on Thursday. I was a bit surprised, honestly. Took them about an hour once I walked over.
- Laura PenhaligonBrilliant, walking over wins again. I saw the connection come through on our side yesterday, so billing has been loading. Have you had a look at what's in there?
- Alan RennieA bit. I asked it a couple of questions on Monday. Nothing clever, just which customers had a credit note last quarter.
- Laura PenhaligonAnd?
- Alan RennieIt was right. Well, it was right for most of them. There were a few it couldn't find at all, and I think that's the reference thing I was telling you about.
- Laura PenhaligonAlmost certainly. Can I share my screen? I can show you the unmatched list we got from the first pass of your spreadsheet.
- Alan RenniePlease, yes.
- Laura PenhaligonOkay, so you can see the screen. On the left, customers the mapping resolved cleanly across billing and the other sources. On the right, the ones it couldn't. What jumps out at you?
- Alan RennieHm. Give me a second. Those top ones, they've got a suffix on the reference. A dash and a letter. That's from when we took over another book of customers, they all got a suffix.
- Laura PenhaligonThat's useful. So the suffix is a genuine part of the identifier in billing but not in provisioning?
- Alan RennieRight. In provisioning they were never changed. So the same customer, two different strings.
- Laura PenhaligonThen it's a rule rather than a list, which is much nicer. I'll add it and re-run overnight. If that's the cause, most of the right-hand column should empty out.
- Alan RennieAnd the rest, I'll go through by hand. There'll be some that are just wrong.
- Laura PenhaligonYes, and that's fine. I'd rather we found out they're wrong in week two than in month six.
- Alan RennieCan I ask something about the numbers on the dashboard page? There's a count of records indexed and it hasn't moved since yesterday.
- Laura PenhaligonGood spot, and it's the right thing to be watching. For billing it will sit still between nightly refreshes, that's normal. If it stays flat for several days when you know invoices are going out, that's when you tell me, because it means the source has stopped loading.
- Alan RennieOkay, so flat overnight is fine, flat for a week is not.
- Laura PenhaligonExactly that.
- Alan RennieWhat about the service desk? I got the access details from the team who run it. I can send them today.
- Laura PenhaligonPerfect, send them over securely and I'll configure it. Faults are going to be the interesting one, because that's where you can start joining what a customer is billed against what's gone wrong for them.
- Alan RennieThat's what the service desk manager is most excited about, actually. She keeps asking whether she can see a customer's bill when they ring up angry.
- Laura PenhaligonThat's precisely the sort of question the brain is for. So she should be in the first group of users. Who else?
- Alan RennieA couple of the account managers, because they'll tell everyone else if it's good. And me, obviously. I don't want to put more than a handful on at first.
- Laura PenhaligonSensible. You've got a hundred and fifty licensed so there's no pressure either way. One thing, though. Right now you're the only admin.
- Alan RennieYeah. Is that a problem?
- Laura PenhaligonOnly if you're on holiday or you leave. I'd name a second admin, someone in IT or in your team, so it's not all down to one person. It doesn't take long to set up.
- Alan RennieFair. I'll ask my colleague in IT, he'll probably say yes just to get me off his back.
- Laura PenhaligonHa. Good. Then training. I'd like to run a short session for the first group once the service desk data is in. About an hour, on your own data, so they're not looking at a demo company.
- Alan RennieYes, please. That'd be much easier than me explaining it badly.
- Laura PenhaligonYou'd be fine, but I'll do it. And the single sign-on conversation with IT, did that come up?
- Alan RennieA bit. They want to see the questionnaire first. I haven't sent it yet, sorry. I'll do that today as well.
- Laura PenhaligonNo problem. So, to land it. I add the suffix rule and re-run tonight. You send the service desk access details and the security questionnaire today, and you ask about a second admin. Then I'll set up the training for once faults are loading.
- Alan RennieThat all sounds right. Same time next week?
- Laura PenhaligonSame time next week, yes. If the service desk connector goes smoothly I'll message you before then.
- Alan RennieGreat. Thanks, Laura. Speak soon.
- Laura PenhaligonCheers, Alan. Bye for now.